THE FIRST ALBEMARLE ASSEMBLY--HALL'S CREEK NEAR NIXONTON
In 1653 King Charles II granted to eight noblemen of his court a tract
of land reaching from the northern shores of Albemarle Sound to St.
John's River in Florida, and from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific
Ocean. A small strip extending from the north shore of the Albemarle
Sound to the southern boundary of Virginia was not included in this
grant, but nevertheless the Lords Proprietors, of whom Governor
Berkeley, of Virginia, was one, assumed control over this section; and
in 1663 these noblemen authorized Berkeley to appoint a governor to rule
over this territory, whose ownership was a disputed question for several
years.
In 1665 the Albemarle region, as it came to be called, comprising the
four ancient counties of Currituck, Pasquotank, Perquimans and Chowan,
had become very valuable on account of the rich plantations established
therein by such men as George Durant, of Perquimans, and Valentine Byrd,
of Pasquotank; and the Lords Proprietors, as the owners of the Carolinas
were called, begged the king to include the above-named strip of land
in their grant. This the king did, ignorant of the vast extent of the
territory which he had already bestowed upon the Lords.
William Drummond, whom Berkeley, of Virginia, had appointed to govern
this Albemarle country, came into Carolina in 1664, and assumed the
reins of government. To assist him in his arduous duties, the Lords
authorized Berkeley to appoint six of the most prominent men in the
settlement to form what came to be known as the Governor's Council. This
body of men, with the Governor, acted for many years as the judicial
department of the State, and also corresponded to what is now the Senate
Chamber in our legislative department.
That the liberty-loving pioneers in Carolina might feel that they were a
self-governing people, every free man in the settlement was to have
right of membership in the General Assembly, which was to meet yearly to
enact the laws. After the Governor, Councilors, and the freemen or their
deputies had passed the laws, a copy of them was to be sent to the Lords
for their consideration. Should they meet with the approval of the
Proprietors, they went into effect; if not, they were null and void.
In the fall of 1664, Governor Drummond began organizing the government
of his new province; and on February 6, 1665, the "Grand Assembly of
Albemarle," as these early law-makers styled themselves, met to frame a
set of laws for this Albemarle Colony. The place chosen for the meeting
of this first legislative body ever assembled in our State, was a little
knoll overlooking Hall's Creek in Pasquotank County, about a mile from
Nixonton, a small town which was chartered nearly a hundred years later.
No record of the names of these hardy settlers who were present at this
Grand Assembly has been handed down to us; but on such an important
occasion we may be sure that all the prominent men in the Albemarle
region who could attend would make it a point to do so.
George Drummond and his secretary, Thomas Woodward, were surely there;
George Durant, Samuel Pricklove, John Harvey, all owners of great
plantations in Perquimans, doubtless were on hand. Thomas Raulfe,
Timothy Biggs, Valentine Byrd, Solomon Poole, all large landowners in
Pasquotank, must have been there; Thomas Jarvis, of Currituck, and
Thomas Pollock, of Chowan, may have represented their counties. And
all--the dignified, reserved Scotch Governor, his haughty secretary, the
wealthy, influential planters and the humble farmers and hunters--must
have felt the solemnity of the occasion and recognized its importance.
We may imagine the scene: Under the spreading boughs of a lordly oak,
this group of men were gathered. Around them the dark forest stretched,
the wind murmuring in the pines and fragrant with the aromatic odor of
the spicy needles. At a distance a group of red men, silent and
immovable, some with bow and arrow in hand, leaning against the trees,
others sitting on the ground, gazed with wondering eyes upon the
palefaces assembled for their first great pow-wow.
Down at the foot of the knoll the silver waves of the creek rippled
softly against the shore; on its waters the sloops of the planters from
the settlements nearby; here and there on its bosom, an Indian canoe
moored close to its shores.
As to the work accomplished by this first Albemarle Assembly, only one
fact is certain, and that is the drawing up by the members of a petition
to the Lords Proprietors, begging that these settlers in Carolina should
be allowed to hold their lands on the same conditions and terms as the
people of Virginia. The Lords graciously consented to this petition, and
on the 1st of May, 1668, they issued a paper known to this day as the
Deed of Grant, by which land in Albemarle was directed to be granted on
the same terms as in Virginia. The deed was duly recorded in Albemarle,
and was preserved with scrupulous care.
There is a tradition in the county that the Assembly also took steps for
preparing for an Indian war then threatening, which broke out the
following year, but was soon suppressed.
Doubtless other laws were enacted, such as were necessary for the
settlement, though no record of them is extant. And then, the business
that called them together having been transacted, and the wheels of
government set in motion, these early law-makers returned home, to manor
house and log cabin, to the care of the great plantations, to the plow,
and the wild, free life of the hunter and trapper; and a new government
had been born.
There seems to be no doubt in the minds of such historians as Colonel
Saunders, Captain Ashe, and President D.H. Hill, that the first
Albemarle Assembly did convene in the early spring of 1665. As for the
day and month, tradition alone is our authority. An old almanac of H.D.
Turner's gives the date as February 6th, and in default of any more
certain date, this was inscribed upon the tablet which the Sir Walter
Raleigh Chapter Daughters of the Revolution have erected at Hall's Creek
Church.
As to the statement that the place marked by the tablet was the scene of
the meeting of our first assemblymen, tradition again is responsible.
But such authorities as Captain Ashe, and various members of the State
Historical Commission, accept the tradition as a fact. And all old
residents of Nixonton assert that their fathers and grandfathers handed
the story down to them.
An extract from a letter from Captain Ashe, author of Ashe's History of
North Carolina, to the Regent of the local Chapter Daughters of the
Revolution may be of interest here:
"Yesterday I came across in the library at Washington, this entry, made
by the late Mrs. Frances Hill, widow of Secretary of the State William
Hill: 'I was born in Nixonton March 14, 1789. Nixonton is a small town
one mile from Hall's Creek, and on a little rise of ground from the
bridge stood the big oak, where the first settlers of our county held
their assembly.'"
Other documents in possession of the Regent of our local Chapter
Daughters of the Revolution go to show that the place and date as named
on the tablet at Hall's Creek are authentic, and that Pasquotank County
may claim with truth the honor of having been the scene of the first
meeting of the Grand Assembly of Albemarle.